Masks
by Rperlish
Summary: Most of the time, when you ask someone what Denki Kaminari is like, they’ll probably say that he’s a happy, outgoing dude. The thing is, there’s much more to him than meets the eye. “Why did you want to be a hero?”
1. Chapter 1 (05-27 13:19:51)

Denki Kaminari spent most of his life wearing a mask. He spent plenty of years practicing his new "personality", just so that he could try to forget. Forget the pain of losing _her_.

Today was another day in Denki's school. He didn't have any friends, but he didn't really mind. It wasn't like nobody wanted him around, it was more that they liked his jokes but never bothered to actually interact with him.

It was nearing the end of Denki's last year of middle school, so the teachers were starting to talk about our futures.

THWACK*

Denki jumped up with a start, rubbing his growing bump on his head as the other kids laughed.

"Kaminari, you need to start paying more attention, especially if you plan on going to U.A." The teacher had a kind, yet stern look on his face as he scolded him.

All the laughing stopped for a moment, then blasted back at full force.

"The _electric moron_? No way!" One student with curly horns chuckled as he thought of all the times he went into full 'moron mode', as everyone liked to call it.

Denki flushed beet red, "Hey, that's not funny!" Now, Denki knew perfectly well how funny it was. That's the reason why he invented it. He thought that if he could devote his time to making people laugh, it could help him forget about the past. There was another reason too, of course, but that was something he couldn't talk about.

After a few more moments of laughing, class resumed as usual.

* * *

After school ended, Denki thought it would be best if he took the long way home, so he had time to think. Most people wouldn't label Denki as a thinker, but that's just how it goes when nobody knows your true identity.

As he walked home he spotted a young brother and sister playing tag. He clenched his fist as he was reminded of _her._ Denki suddenly shook his head. He almost got lost in memories again.

By the time Denki finally got home, it was already dark out, so he ate a quick dinner and went to sleep.

* * *

Denki never knew his parents, but that was ok, as long as he had his sister with him. His older sister had long, electric-blonde hair with black stripes, and had a very kind and caring personality. She had to work twice as hard at her part-time job to provide for the both of them, but she never seemed to mind. They were very content with their lives, until the day everything changed forever.

The little brother woke up later than usual that morning, so his sister left to her job before he could say goodbye, something he would come to regret.

The 8-year-old boy sat up groggily and walked over to the kitchen table in their apartment, where he saw a bowl of cereal and a note.

" _Good morning Denki, I didn't want to wake you up, so I made your breakfast and left to my job, and I should be back by 5:00, so be good and don't make a mess while I'm gone. -Your loving sister"_

Denki was used to this routine by now, so he put the note in his pocket and started eating his cereal. The blonde was home-schooled, so he didn't have to worry about getting ready or getting to school on time, so he mostly just played video games to pass the time.

Denki was starting to get nervous, it was almost two hours past the time his sister was supposed to be back, so he did what his sister told him to do in these types of situations. He called 911.

There was a knock on his door, and Denki ran to it excitedly, only for the excitement to drop down to his stomack when he saw a tall man with brown hair in his 20s at the door instead of his sister.

The man had a kind, yet sad smile on his face as he looked at the young boy.

"Are you Denki Kaminari?" The small boy nodded, a blank look on his face.

The man's face becomes grim, "Well, I'm sorry to say this, but... your sister is, for the lack of a better term, dead."

 **—FOOTNOTE—**

 **Hey guys, I hope you like this story so far, though this is technically my first "real" story, since I never really got around to actually writing the other one because of motivation, but let me know what you guys think. I'll try to post this story on AO3 pretty soon, but I need to wait until June to get my account, since it works on waiting lists and invitations.**

 **I came up with this story because I really like Denki's character design and his derp face, but I thought "what if Denki secretly has a tragic backstory but has a mask on all the time around other people?" If you're wondering what his sister's name is, I'm keeping it secret for a reason, as well as the other reason why he pretends to have a derp mode when he exceeds his "volt limit". I'm trying to make this the kind of story that raises a lot of questions, then you start to put together the pieces as the story progresses.**

 **I'll be sure to answer any questions you have in the reviews, as well as accept any criticism you have for the story, so reviews are welcome.**

 **I'll be updating this story whenever I can, so there's not really a set schedule or anything.** **I'll continue the story if people like it, so if you enjoy it so far, be sure to tell me in the reviews, so I know that people are actually going to read this.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Your sister is, for a lack of a better term... dead."

Weeks past by, and Denki never once left the room he was sent to in the orphanage. He was in shock, and the workers there started getting worried that he would die, since he wouldn't eat the food laid out for him. This behavior kept going on until a day came by that, while it didn't exactly give him hope, but gave him a new purpose in life.

A week after being sent to the orphanage, Denki overheard something that the police officer that told him of his sister's death.

The boy listened to the man speak with a scowl. He didn't like the man, whose name was Tsukauchi, since he associated his face with all the dark feelings and thoughts in his head. He _was_ only a child, after all.

Denki shook his head to clear his head of those thoughts and resumed listening, still with a scowl on his face.

"-think we found out who was behind the murder of the sister of Denki Kaminari," Denki's eyes widened, shock written all over his face.

The blonde pressed his ear closer to the door, intent on finding out this bit of information.

The owner of the orphanage spoke next, "Oh, so you found that out? I'm glad, maybe little Denki can come out of his room and eat now."

Tsukauchi answered with a sigh, "No, we mustn't tell the boy yet, he's not ready," Denki's scowl deepened, "But enough of that, the people behind the murder are-"

* * *

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Denki jolted awake with a start, shocking the alarm clock in the process. "Darn, now I need to buy another one," he complained with a frown on his face.

The frown deepened as he recalled the dream. _I thought I could escape my troubles through sleep, but I guess not..._

 _Oh well, now's not the time to dwell on that, I need to get ready for the entrance exam!_

* * *

Denki wasn't really paying attention to the explanation, though there was one serious guy with glasses who asked a dumb question about the exam, and then proceeded to call out a plain boy with green hair. He didn't really see what the big deal was about one guy's quiet muttering, but he wasn't one to get into other people's business.

* * *

 _All right, now let's beat up some robots,_

Denki thought as he went to his station. He looked around to look at his competitors. There was a guy with spiky red hair who looked pretty tough, so Denki thought he might be able to get in. One the other hand, there was a really short guy with grape-like balls on his head who did nothing but stare at the girl competitors the whole time. _He's definitely gonna fail._

Present Mic started speaking, "ALRIGHT LISTENERS, IT'S TIME TO START BUSTING UP SOME ROBOTS! GO!"

Denki started running to a bunch of robots that were worth 3 points and started charging up electricity in his fingers. The robots suddenly turn towards him, _"TARGET ACQUIRED."_

One of the started charging at Denki and swiped a robotic arm at him, only for the blonde to duck under it, grab it's torso, then electrocute it's circuits thoroughly. _One down two to go,_ he thought.

Then he charged up a ton of electricity in two of his fingertips, then launched two streams of yellow electricity at the two respectively.Denki had a smirk on his face as he electrocuted robot after robot, until he decided to stop at 45 points, since he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself. He then put up his iconic 'Wheey' face, with blank eyes and a dumb smile, walking around the cityscape with a double thumbs-up.

He almost broke out of character at the 2-minute mark, when he heard and felt a loud BOOM across the city. Denki's face turned into a shocked one for a split-second, as he watched several building collapse under a huge robot at a different station before turning back into his dumb one. _What the heck was that?_ , he wondered, right before Present Mic yelled, "TIME!"

* * *

 **FOOTNOTE**

 **Thank you guys for all the support you've shown so far, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I kinda wanted to add some more fight scenes during the exam, but I'm not all that good at writing fight scenes right now, and I kinda thought it would be more fitting if Denki finished early, so that he scores lower on the scoreboards but still gets in. Thanks for reading!**


End file.
